“What are you doing here?”

From across a fallen screen, Shen Yuance’s cold eyes fixed on her.

The drowsiness that had just overcome Jiang Zhiyi on the couch instantly vanished.

The man standing before her was the one who had once treated her with utmost tenderness, yet in this moment, Jiang Zhiyi felt as though she was being watched by a strange wolf. A chill crawled up her spine as an overwhelming sense of danger filled the air.

Having just awakened from her sleep, she was still gathering her senses. Her response came a beat too slow, and the man across from her seemed to lose patience. He raised his boot and stepped on the overturned screen, kicking away the pile of broken porcelain with one motion.

The sharp crack made Jiang Zhiyi’s entire body tremble as she covered her ears. Watching him step forward, she instinctively backed away, her knees hitting the edge of the couch as she tumbled backward onto the lohan bed behind her.

Shen Yuance stood still before the couch, lowering his gaze as his hand slowly tightened around the sword hilt at his waist.

Looking at the slender blue veins beneath the snow-white neck of the person on the couch, he could almost see the thin skin being sliced open by a sharp blade, blood gushing forth—

“Why are you being so fierce? It’s frightening…” Jiang Zhiyi looked at him with bewildered, fearful eyes, shrinking her shoulders.

The crimson image before him suddenly receded like a tide, and Shen Yuance’s hand paused on his sword.

He—why was he being fierce?

…Couldn’t she tell?

Jiang Zhiyi: “What’s wrong… do you want to argue with me?”

“…”

After killing so many people, this was the first time that, with his sword nearly drawn, someone thought he had come to argue.

She had better be pretending to be naive; otherwise, he could be insulted, but his sword could not.

“Argue?” Shen Yuance gripped his sword hilt, nodding with a bitter laugh. “Argue…”

“I haven’t even come to argue with you yet, but you’ve already gone on the offensive…” Jiang Zhiyi’s lips trembled, then she suddenly stood up, thrusting out her chest with hands on her hips, taking one large step forward. “Fine then, let’s argue! I’ve got plenty of anger to vent anyway!”

Shen Yuance stepped back with his sword, lowering his head in disbelief.

Barely reaching his shoulder blades in height, her angry step forward somehow carried the momentum of someone a head taller than him. After making her show of strength, she immediately retreated into self-pity, pursing her lips as if about to cry.

…She had played both the aggressor and the victim all by herself.

Shen Yuance pressed his thumb tightly against the pommel of his sword, narrowing his eyes patiently: “You have anger? What could you possibly be angry about?”

“This morning you said all those sarcastic things to me, how could I not be angry! Tell me clearly, is that girl you brought back today your lover from the border?”

Shen Yuance glanced toward the east wing room, raising an eyebrow: “What if she is?”

Jiang Zhiyi gaped at him in disbelief.

What if she is?

How could he utter such shameless words so casually…

“…You’re being fickle, tiring of the old and favoring the new!”

“To tire of the old and favor the new, there must first be something ‘old.’ May I ask, Princess, what ‘old’ connection exists between us?”

Jiang Zhiyi choked, suddenly feeling this scene was familiar, like when she had encountered bandits and awoken in the military camp, hearing him say—What connection could there be between this subject and the Princess?

At that time, there were others in the tent, and she assumed he was putting on an act to hide their relationship. But just now, Mu Xinhong had already retreated, and only the two of them remained in the room.

She had no more excuses to deceive herself…

Since his return to the capital, he had never shown her a pleasant face, addressing her formally as “Princess” even when they were alone, never mentioning a single word about the past. It was clear that with a new person in his life, he had no intention of acknowledging their previous relationship!

Jiang Zhiyi took a deep, trembling breath, fighting back tears as she looked away.

As she glanced aside, she suddenly spotted a crescent-shaped jade pendant among the broken porcelain fragments behind him.

With light blue tassels as decoration, the lustrous white jade was distinctly carved with the character “Yi.”

As if catching hold of evidence, Jiang Zhiyi abruptly pointed to the ground: “You say there’s nothing old between us, then what about this jade pendant?”

Shen Yuance turned around and looked down: “?”

Jiang Zhiyi got up and grabbed the jade pendant, holding it up before his eyes: “This is the token I gave you as a pledge. Don’t pretend you don’t recognize it!”

Acting in dramas all day wasn’t enough; now she even brought her props. Shen Yuance closed his eyes impatiently, truly tired of these theatrical scripts.

Arguing was more exhausting than killing someone.

“A token given to me?” Shen Yuance opened his eyes, snatched the jade pendant from her hand, and with a darkened expression, hurled it toward the corner of the wall.

With a clang, the jade pendant instantly shattered like the porcelain vase.

Shen Yuance: “Now I’ve thrown it away. Is the Princess satisfied?”

Jiang Zhiyi stared blankly at the ground, fixating on the shattered jade pendant, looking in disbelief for a long while before she could believe what had just happened.

Like suddenly falling from a great height, her heart instantly sank to the depths. The tears she had been holding back for so long immediately filled her eyes, beginning to swirl in their sockets.

“Fine…” A moment later, she slowly turned her gaze back, looking at him with tear-filled eyes and nodding, “Since that’s how it is, from today forward, all ties between us are severed. We shall never meet again!”

With that, she turned and ran out crying without looking back.

The study suddenly fell silent.

Shen Yuance’s temple throbbed visibly as his gaze swept across the mess on the floor. He raised his hand to loosen his collar.

Qing Song rushed in anxiously: “Young Master, was I seeing things just now? Didn’t the Princess leave earlier? How could she come out of your study…”

The anger that Shen Yuance had just begun to suppress instantly flared back up to his head: “You’re asking me?”

Qing Song’s heart skipped a beat as he shrank his neck and lowered his head.

“Such a living person in the study, and you’ve been in this courtyard all day, knowing nothing, yet you come to question me?”

Qing Song apologized with his head bowed, quickly taking a broom to clean up the mess on the floor. When he reached the corner, he suddenly paused.

“Oh, isn’t this the Young Master’s jade pendant?”

“What are you talking—” Shen Yuance turned his head and paused. “What did you say?”

“Oh, I’m not referring to you, but to the Elder Young Master!” Qing Song pointed at the ground. “This looks like the jade pendant that the Elder Young Master used to cherish…”

Shen Yuance slowly lowered his eyes to look at the broken pieces of jade, hesitating for a moment before blinking: “Say that again?”

“Without a doubt, this is the Elder Young Master’s jade pendant!”

An incense stick’s burning time later, Qing Song stood by the desk, sweating profusely as he reassembled the pieces of jade. Except for one small dot of the character “Yi” that had disappeared somewhere, the original form was mostly visible.

Beside him, Mu Xinhong’s eyes widened like brass bells: “Are you certain?”

“Absolutely certain. I remember it clearly. For half a year before the Elder Young Master went to the frontier, he often played with this jade pendant at home. I even wondered why he liked this jade so much, but never wore it. The Elder Young Master said he spent his days cockfighting and dog racing, and wearing it out would risk breaking it.”

“After the Elder Young Master went to battle, I never saw this jade pendant again. Unexpectedly, it was hidden in this porcelain vase. No wonder the Elder Young Master never let servants touch the items on this display shelf…”

As his words fell, the study suddenly plunged into silence.

In the deathly quiet room, even the air seemed to have solidified.

Shen Yuance sat motionless at the desk, lost in thought. After a long while, he hadn’t made even the slightest sound of breathing.

The world believed the Shen family had only one son, but few knew that eighteen years ago, the Shen family had welcomed a pair of twin boys.

However, as soon as they were born, the twin brothers were forcibly separated—

The elder brother was named “Shen Yuance” and remained in Chang’an as the sole heir of the Shen family, living under public scrutiny.

The younger brother was secretly sent to the border, abandoning the surname Shen to take his mother’s surname Yuan, adopting the name “Yuan Ce” and growing up in obscurity.

The brothers had not met for over a decade.

Until three years ago, when the elder brother left the capital for the border.

In the vast desert, after three years of wind and sand, the young general who should have wielded his halberd in the light of glory, protecting the country, was instead ambushed in the shadows, buried in the yellow sand without even a tombstone to mark his grave…

A failed military campaign brought the condemnation of the entire court. The glory and blood sweat of General Shen’s lifetime were destroyed in an instant, and the entire Shen family became historical sinners.

On one side was the court-imposed punishment, on the other were enemies taking advantage of the weakness. The younger brother, who had always hidden in the shadows, was forced to step into the light, concealing his brother’s death and assuming the identity of his surviving brother to take up the long spear—

In half a year, he led the Xuan Ce Army from the brink of disaster to a counterattack, driving the Northern Jie people out of Hexi, pursuing them into enemy territory, advancing through mountains of corpses and seas of blood to the royal city, setting fire to the Northern Jie royal tomb, shocking the world.

The curses from the entire court finally subsided.

When the war ended, the younger brother, carrying the blood vengeance of the Shen family, returned to Chang’an in his brother’s identity and began to settle accounts.

…

Shen Yuance slowly emerged from his memories, raising his eyes to focus once more on the jade pendant before him.

“Is there something wrong with this jade pendant…” Seeing both Shen Yuance and Mu Xinhong become as serious as if facing a great enemy, Qing Song asked tremblingly.

Mu Xinhong looked at him through gritted teeth: “Didn’t you say the Princess and the Elder Young Master were mortal enemies?”

“Yes!” Qing Song was startled; the Young Master and General Mu had asked him this question no less than three times in recent days. “Back then, the Elder Young Master was fighting crickets with someone, and one cricket accidentally jumped onto the Princess, startling her. The Princess’s attendants then crushed the cricket. The Princess was frightened, and the Elder Young Master lost his beloved champion—that’s how the feud began… I was there at the time; no one understands their enmity better than I do!”

Mu Xinhong pointed at his nose in exasperation: “You understand? Then didn’t you know that the Princess’s name contains the character ‘Yi’?”

“A lowly person like me isn’t worthy of knowing the Princess’s name…” Qing Song’s mouth moved faster than his brain. Halfway through his self-pity, his mouth suddenly closed, and he turned to look at the jade pendant on the table, drawing in a sharp breath. “So this jade pendant might be something the Princess gave to the Elder Young Master…”

A token of love?!

Mu Xinhong angrily slapped his thigh.

This Qing Song claimed to have grown up with the Elder Young Master, knowing everything about him. Moreover, on the day the young general returned victorious, the Princess had first publicly provoked him at the teahouse, then came to the military camp to pick a fight in private. Her attitude indeed matched Qing Song’s description, and even Lady Shen viewed the relationship between the Princess and the Elder Young Master the same way—

After repeated confirmation, they naturally concluded that the Princess’s recent unusual behavior was ill-intentioned.

Qing Song: “This is impossible… how could it be? Could it be that the Princess and the Elder Young Master only pretended to be mortal enemies when they were lovers?”

Mu Xinhong: “Is there any other possibility now?”

Although it sounded absurd at first, the Princess’s recent behavior—provoking the young general in public while being affectionate in private—though annoying, showed no intention of harming him—

Upon further reflection, this answer seemed quite reasonable.

Even the Princess’s act of pretending to be pitiful to sneak into the Shen mansion last night had found an explanation.

Since returning to the capital, the young general had been busy with various matters, from imperial audiences to military affairs with court officials. Each person he faced was more important than the Princess, so he hadn’t paid much attention to this young lady. Who knew that the flaw would almost be exposed here!

Mu Xinhong looked at the long-silent Shen Yuance, scratching his head: “Young General, it’s all my fault for rashly mentioning your identity today. I don’t know if the Princess heard or not, but if she calms down and thinks carefully, discovering your abnormality, then this Princess might just be—”

“The greatest variable for me in Chang’an city.” Shen Yuance slowed his speech, staring at the jade pendant as he pronounced each word.

Qing Song: “So, so what do we do now?”

Mu Xinhong: “Either silence her permanently, or…”

—Since he had inherited the Elder Young Master’s identity, he would also have to inherit the Elder Young Master’s lover.